


There's Some Ghosts in this House

by efree



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Gen, Ghost Squip, Michael and Jeremy are roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:35:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26893789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/efree/pseuds/efree
Summary: Jeremy hesitates before warily touching the shiny plastic planchet in front of him. The ouija board is brand new, despite what the fake weathering and purposely burnt edges would want you to believe. Michael had ordered it on Amazon Prime Now as soon as the power cut out earlier this afternoon. He scoots back slightly, eyeing the board.“Didn’t your grandma always warn us not to mess with this stuff?” Jeremy asks, knocking the planchet with his finger and watching it glide smoothly from “NO” to “YES”.“Yeah, and that just made me want to do it more. Plus, this is like the first thing you're supposed to do when you get a new house, especially the first time the power goes out.”“I think the first thing you’re supposed to do is burn sage, which is like, the opposite of what we are doing.”“Come on!” Michael whines.“Fine” Jeremy acquiesces, “but if things get weird I'm out.”
Relationships: Jeremy Heere/Jeremy Heere's Squip
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man’s evil prying calls them just within our range._

-H.P. Lovecraft

The trees are just beginning to turn the day that Jeremy and Michael’s power goes out. They had just moved into an old building just on the edge of their college campus. There is no furniture in the house save for a small folding table and chair burdened with empty fast food and takeout containers, and two mattresses that lay on the floor of the bedrooms. It gets dark early now, so the two boys sit on the floor in dim candlelight facing each other, their necks arched forward over the game board between them.

Jeremy hesitates before warily touching the shiny plastic planchet in front of him. The ouija board is brand new, despite what the fake weathering and purposely burnt edges would want you to believe. Michael had ordered it on Amazon Prime Now as soon as the power cut out earlier this afternoon. He scoots back slightly, eyeing the board.

“Didn’t your grandma always warn us not to mess with this stuff?” Jeremy asks, knocking the planchet with his finger and watching it glide smoothly from “NO” to “YES”.

“Yeah, and that just made me want to do it more. Plus, this is like the first thing you're supposed to do when you get a new house, especially the first time the power goes out.”

“I think the first thing you’re supposed to do is burn sage, which is like, the opposite of what we are doing.”

“Come on!” Michael whines.

“Fine” Jeremy acquiesces, “but if things get weird I'm out.”

Michael wiggles happily, fingers already pressed to the off-white plastic. Jeremy joins him. Michael closes his eyes and they wait. A moment goes by before Jeremy breaks the anticipation.

“Now what?”

“I dunno man, I didn’t think that far ahead.” Michael pulls his phone out and after a quick Google search, then they’re back on the road to Spooksville.

“We gotta move it around to warm up the board.” Michael says, so they push the planchet back and forth for a little, both boys feeling a little foolish.

“Is there anyone in this house that would like to speak to us?”

The planchet pushes over to “YES” and Michael grins.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Jeremy deadpans, taking his hands off the planchet and crossing his arms protectively over his chest.

Michael laughs, “Sorry man, I had to.”

“Fuck you.”

Jeremy places his fingers back on the planchet and closes his eyes. He peeks one opened to catch Michael giving him the thumbs up before putting his own hands on the stupid, very much not scary, plastic toy.

“Is there anyone here?” Jeremy tries, weakly.

The planchette moves again, slowly and deliberately, it’s tip pointing to “Yes.” It moves differently this time around, as if pulled by a string rather than pushed by his asshole of a best friend. The sensation is weird and the tips of his fingers tingle where they meet the planchet. Jeremy looks up at Michael, who is staring at the board in amazement. Okay, so it wasn’t him this time.

"What is your name?” Michael whispers.

The planchet wiggles, turning first to the right then to the left, then it begins spinning. It spins clockwise picking up speed as it continues. Jeremy and Michaels fingers get so tangled with each other they have to replace them on the planchet with each rotation. Then it stops, the tip of the planchet pointed straight toward Jeremy.

“I guess it likes you more.” Michael says with a half-hearted grin.

“Fantastic.” Jeremy deadpans, but for whatever reason he chooses to continue. “So uh, what's your name?”

Their hands slide over to the “S” and then the “Q”.

“Squidward!” Michael supplies, unhelpfully. At that very moment a loud crash comes from his bedroom.

The two boys stare in the direction of the sound, neither wanting to move for fear of angering whatever it is they’re talking to.

“Okay,” Michael breathes, “heard.”

The planchet starts over; S Q U I P

“Squip? Is that your name?”

The planchet just repeats itself:

SQUIP SQUIP SQUIP SQUIP

faster and faster and then. It's over. Like someone turned off a heater in the room. The oppressive air around them lifted before either of them had really noticed it was there. Michael, looking pale, gives Jeremy a face that says ‘holy fuck.’ Jeremy agrees.

“Squip? Are you here?” Jeremy tires, but they both know that the spirit wasn’t with them anymore. The boys spend the next two hours huddled together under a cocoon of fear and blankets, just like when they were 8 and watched Halloween for the first time.

Eventually they muster up the courage to check Michael’s room, clinging to each other as they go. They shine their flashlights through the doorway to find the room strangely untouched. Michael’s mess is still in its rightful place on the floor.

“You did hear the crash, didn’t you?” Michael asks, still pale and clearly shaken.

“Yeah I heard it. Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?” A not entirely selfless offer, Jeremy doesn’t want to spend the night alone either.

Michael forces a grin, “Sleepover?”

They drag Michael’s mattress out of his room and into Jeremy’s. Both mattresses are naked save for a single pillow and comforter. They put a flashlight between the two mattresses, strategically pointed towards Jeremy's door. They also take the little night light out of the bathroom and plug it the outlet closest to their beds for when the lights come back. Which they do around 2AM, but aside from some surprising illumination nothing happens for the rest of the night.

The next night Michael goes back to sleeping in his own room. The house is quiet for long enough that they slowly begin furnishing the place. Bits and bobs from Amazon and Ikea and torn posters from their dorm room. The house begins to feel like home.

One night after Jeremy puts himself to bed, he finds himself in the arms of a stranger. He is sitting with his back pressed up against a firm flat chest staring at his bedroom wall. He's pretty sure he hadn't fallen asleep yet, but he is pretty sure he'd remember a stranger coming into his room and pulling him into their lap. The man gently combs his fingers through Jeremy’s hair. Jeremy decides that it has to be a dream and lets himself enjoy the petting.

“Do you know who I am, Jeremy?” The man asks softly.

Jeremy nods. Somewhere in the depths of his brain he knows this man is the ghost from the living room.

“You're Squip.” Jeremy supplies dreamily.

“Yes,” Squip replies as he strokes Jeremy’s cheek.

His touch is an icy caress, and when Jeremy looks down to see his hand there is nothing there but a deep, inky darkness. His bedroom walls have disappeared and he is floating in space. The strong body behind him keeps him moored to his bed, but the disorientation grows with each passing second. A soft kiss is pressed to the top of Jeremy’s head as Squip disappears. Without him the velvety black of the room wraps itself around Jeremy’s body and holds him down tight. Jeremy feels panic rise in his throat, he twists his body violently to try and get away then, he's falling.

He wakes up thoroughly disoriented, finding himself only half on his mattress. There's a bump on the back of his head from where it hit the ground and it’s sore when he touches it. Jeremy pulls himself off the ground and reorients himself back on the bed, adjusting the blankets around him. He doesn’t even bother trying to sleep, he just hides in a cave of blankets until exhaustion finally overtakes him.

The next morning he finds Michael up bright and early, pouring hot water from their electric tea kettle into the French press. Michael holds up the coffee grounds in offering, and Jeremy nods his head, he’ll need more than a cup of coffee to get him through this day.

“How did you sleep?” Jeremy asks. He doesn't actually care. He is just priming the conversation so he can tell Michael about his terrible dream.

“Awful,” Michael replies, bringing two mugs and the French press to the folding card table that now serves as their dining area. “I had a nightmare where this man or thing threatened me. I think it was the ghost from the living room. He told me to stay away from you. I couldn't move or scream or breathe. I just stood there staring at him. He didn’t really do anything but there was this terrible, threatening, angry energy pouring off of him. And then this really heavy darkness was on top of me, like it isn't just darkness but like something sitting on my chest? I don’t know, dude, but I didn't sleep for the rest of the night. What about you?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry you had to wait three months for a less than 600 word chapter.

Chapter 2  
I've always considered myself to be the sturdy type. You know, the sort who can put up with any unpleasant situation if I have to.  
― John Boyne

After the shared dream nonsense, nothing weird happens for about a month. That is until the business with the tea kettle begins. While working at the kitchen table, Jeremy hears a quiet “click” behind him. Michael is in his bedroom on a Zoom call so Jermey decides to investigate by himself. He sneaks over to the kettle and watches the switch flip itself “on” and “off” over and over again. He watches for a while, long enough for Michael to finish his call and find Jeremy standing in the corner. 

“What the are you-”

“SHHHHH” Jeremy interrupts, pointing a shaky finger toward the tea kettle as it mindlessly switches itself on and off. The two boys watch in fascination. After a few minutes it stops, but the boys stay frozen. 

“I'm beginning to see my grandma’s point about ouija boards.” Michael mutters.

“So far it's been pretty harmless.” Jeremy replies, “Maybe it’s like Casper?” 

Michael scoffs, but doesn’t press further. 

The next day it happens again. The tea kettle’s switch moving back and forth, on and off, over and over again. 

“Michael!” he calls. “The tea kettle is doing the thing again!” But he gets no answer. 

In a moment of dumb curiousity, Jeremy decides to approach the kettle and see what’s happening. The switch is at the “on'' position so he flips it to “off” only to have it, almost in defiance, flip back on. So he decides to unplug the thing. With a sigh of relief he goes back to work at the kitchen table. After a moment a scent wafts around him, like the air before a storm, like ozone, he can almost feel the electricity on the hairs of his arm, but the moment dissipates quickly enough that he doesn't pay much mind. 

It is around two months into the haunting (and the lockdown) that Jeremy and Michael begin to discuss the ghost as if it's their third roommate:  
“Did you eat the last of the peanut butter then put the jar back in the cabinet like I wouldn't notice?”  
“Not me, I think it was The Squip.”  
Or  
“Was it you or The Squip who was up till three last night listening to Carly Rae Jepsen?”

It is around this time that the spookiness seems to stop. It is easy to notice the suspicious lack of weird events when you are stuck inside your home all the time. 

“Do you think it's gone?” Michael asks one time, during their nightly ritual of getting high and playing Animal Crossing.  
“What's gone?”  
“The Squip.”  
Jeremy half expects a clap of thunder to sound after he says the name, but all he hears is the continued chirp of crickets through their opened window  
“I don’t know.” 

That night there's an oppressive feeling that seems to settle over Jeremy as he gets ready for bed. He chalks it up to the hot humid weather, but in the back of his mind he knows that's not it.  
He dreams of it again, This time he sees a face, with dark hair and even darker eyes. It smiles at him almost playfully and Jeremy isn’t sure how he feels about it.  
“I don’t think Michael likes you.” he says automatically,  
“I don’t like Michael.” it responds.


End file.
